Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Billionaire's undercover bride : Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

---DAMIANThe moment Vivian ended Charlotte’s call, the room felt different, heavier, tighter, like someone had closed all the windows. She stared at the phone long after her phone went off, her fingers trembling slightly. But when she finally looked at me, something in her look softened like she remembered we were in the middle of something deeply personal, something more serious “Damian,” she said quietly, “you were telling me about… your past.”I hadn’t expected her to want to keep going.Most people would let the topic die the moment a distraction appeared.Vivian wasn’t like most people.She came closer, placing the phone aside, giving me her full attention again. And damn… that did something to me. It made me feel seen in a way I wasn’t used to.I sat back down on the edge of the bed, exhaling slowly. “It’s not a story I’m proud of.”“I don’t need you to be proud,” she replied gently. “I just want you to be honest.”Her words hit softer than they should’ve, but they landed dee

VIVIANI woke to the smell of something warm and buttery drifting across my pillow. For a moment, I lay still, enjoying the quiet hum of morning light pressing through the curtains. My eyes were still closed when I felt a soft brush against my cheek fingers warm, careful, almost reverent.“Good morning, sweetheart.”Damian’s voice had that velvety quality it only carried when he first woke up. Roughened edges softened by sleep. I blinked my eyes open slowly and found him leaning over me, one hand braced on the mattress, the other trailing a lazy line down my jaw.His hair was damp from the shower, pushed back messily, and the faint scent of his cologne deep and warmHe smiled down at me as if waking me was the single highlight of his entire day.“You look like you were dreaming,” he murmured, his thumb brushing the corner of my mouth. “Something good?”“Maybe,” I whispered.Maybe not.Maybe everything.His smile widened just a little. “Let’s make it better.”He stepped back, revealing

VIVIANThe apartment felt too quiet after Mandy and Favour left. Their laughter still hung faintly in the air, like the last note of a song fading into silence. For a moment, I stood in the middle of the living room, staring at the door they’d walked through, my heartbeat still racing from the news headline.Vale Global under scrutiny again.Anonymous evidence leak.Corporate cover-up.That message on Mandy’s phone had felt like a punch straight to my lungs.Someone was moving pieces behind my back.Someone was accelerating the game.And I couldn’t stop the spiral forming in my gut.I grabbed my laptop with shaky hands and walked to the dining table. The room was dim now, the sun long set, the shadows stretching across the floor like fingers reaching for me.I pulled in a breath and whispered to myself, “Okay… think.”But thinking wasn’t helping.Only action would.I opened my laptop, navigating to the secure folder where I kept notes, timestamps, and the little evidence I had collect

DAMIANI knew something was wrong the moment I pulled into the driveway.The house was too quiet.Not the peaceful kind of quiet the unsettling, hollow kind. The kind that made the hair on your neck lift. My day had already been a storm of meetings, negotiations, board drama… and through it all, I had felt the low hum beneath my ribs, the strange instinct that Vivian was holding something inside her again.I didn’t expect to open the door and smell alcohol.Not wine. Something stronger. Something desperate.“Vivian?” I called out softly, shutting the door behind me.No answer.My heartbeat tightened. I walked deeper into the living room, noticing her shoes scattered on the floor, her bag half-unzipped on the couch, documents spilling out like she’d torn through them without caring.Then I saw her.Curled on the rug beside the coffee table, her hair loose, cheeks flushed, bottle tipped on its side. Her eyes were half-open as she stared at nothing — or everything. I couldn’t tell.My c

DAMIANThe house felt too quiet after the doctor left one of those heavy silences that settle on the walls and crawl under your skin. I stood by the bedroom door for a moment, hands in my pockets, staring at the spot where he’d packed his medical kit and assured me twice that “She will be fine, Mr. Vale. She only needs rest.”Rest.Vivian was the kind of woman who turned rest into a battlefield. Even unconscious, she refused to lie still, shifting, frowning, murmuring in that soft voice that somehow carried weight. Like she was fighting something in her dreams.Or maybe still fighting me.Us.This entire strange, fragile thing we were pretending wasn’t happening.I inhaled slowly and stepped inside.The room smelled like the lavender diffuser she’d insisted on buying—“Lavender calms the mind,” she had said. I’d rolled my eyes then, but now the scent felt… grounding. Her hair was spread across the pillow, a messy halo of curls. Her lips were slightly parted, her breaths shallow but ste